Swiss army knives. Victorinox.

  As someone who grew up in the 1950s carrying a knife was a way of life.  No not for stabbing people... for cutting things.

 Back then boys more or less all had a penknife, indeed many carried a sheth knife out in the woods, as did all boy scouts in those days, it wasn't seen as threatening, just the norm.  So thats what I was used to.

 Fast forward to today and finding a knife that UK legal to carry is harder than you might think, the law is simple enough... well sort of. Any knife with a folding non locking blade under three inches is legal to carry anywhere (with a few exceptions like courts) without you needing a reason to carry it. Any other knife, locking blade or fixed blade is legal to carry in a public place provided you have a good reason to carry it.

 So a chef carrying a set of ten inch razor sharp knives is fine on his way to work, carry them to a football match and your in trouble, and rightly so.  The problem is a locking three inch blade is a lot safer and no more dangerous than a folding three inch blade, so the logic is a bit flawed. But thats the law.  Now we get to the swiss army part.

 As I said finding a non locking knife isn't easy, nearly all hiking and camping, and ALL fishing shops sell a huge varity of folding knives, nearly all locking, the fact you cant legally just carry them around seems to have escaped their attention.  Victorinox (swiss army to you and me) make a large selection of UK legal knives.

 Many years ago I had a swiss army knife, and bloody good it was too.  I lost it swiming one day (long story) and switched to multitools folding pliers type things with a varity before finding a Gerber, fantastic quality and bloody expensive... sadly it has locking blades so strictly speaking you cant carry it without a good reason.  Recenty I rediscovered swiss army, and now I'm hooked. 

 Not only are they well made, they are fairly priced and better still theres a massive selection to choose from, plus if you cant find an off the shelf one to suit your needs (unlikely) they will make you a custom one with your choice of tools, they also have easily the best woodsaw of any multitool.  Plus most are legal to carry, they do make a few with locking blades so check if you decide to buy one.

 Now all I have to do is not loose the one I have, this was a fair bit more expensive than the one I lost but it is in a belt pouch not a pocket like the last one, and to be fair I don't swim with my trousers on if I can help it..... Not with the weight I carry anyway....

Noises?

 The last two days I've noticed some odd noises. Yesterday I really picked up on one, it's what sounds like small stones falling behind me.  Not great big thuds, just like a chipping hitting the pavenment behind me.

 Now I know that sounds like I'm loosing my marbles but I am hearing it.  At first I just thught is was something falling from a tree.. a twig or something, then I heard it again.  Now it's not all the time, just now and then.  I did wonder if it's a stone in my shoe heel (had that before) but I checked my shoes and they are fine.  I can only assume it's something in my coat (theres nobody around when it happens) and I'll have to try a different jacket and see if it's still there.

 The other noise it much easier to explain, but still odd, it's birds tweeting after dark.  Most birds go quiet after dark, but for some reason I'm getting quite a lot of bird life sounds when I'm out and about, and this is long after full darkness.

 I do wonder if the new "daylight" streetlights may be confusing our feathered friends?  But it's just a guess.

Covid first jab a week later

 

 Well it's nearly a week since my first covid jab, so far apart from a slight soreness of the arm I seem fine (and thats nearly gone now)  Apparently quite a lot of people are having a reaction to it, but most are not serious.   The big question is what long term effects will there be from it?

My coat of many feathers...

 

  For those of you who don't know my coat of many feathers is a down jacket I've had for years.  It's given good service but is now showing it's age.

  Truth be told it started "shedding" feathers ages ago, and my friends used to have to hoover around after a visit from me.  Now it's lost so much of it's filling it's not great insulation any more (and it's getting "tatty"). But it may still come out again for places where I might get dirty.

 It's been replaced by a high tech low cost works jacket. Frankly it's at least as warm as the down jacket at it's best and waterproof as well, and it was cheap....  And the good news for my mates is they wont need to get the hoover out after I visit, this thing hasn't got feathers.  Ok it probably wont last as long as the very expensive american made down jacket, but as long as I'm warm on a cold day I don't care.

Had my first covid jab

  I had my first covid jab today, very quick and supprisingly well organised.  Only took a few minutes and fair do to the army medic who did it I honestly didn't really feel anything. He did a cracking job.

 

Poltergeist update Feb 2021

  Just an update on the latest poltergeist activity.  It seems to go "quiet" for a while then start up again.  It was quiet over Christmas (or I didn't notice it) but over the last few weeks stuff has been happening again. I've still got some missing kit, strangly my video light hasn't turned up from ages ago.

More recently a toilet roll moved across the bathroom floor, not rolled, slid! and last week a loaf of bread decided to leave the bread board on my kitchen table, and wander over to the back door several yards away.  

 Now it can't fall from where it is, it's on the back of a table with stuff in front of it, and a kitchen unit behind, and even if it could it would fall by the table, they dont roll really (I tried) No way is it going that far by itself, and I heard it land, I was out the kitchen in seconds, nobody could have moved it and got out of sight before I got there.

 It's really weird, it's not really classic poltergeist stuff, but I don't know what else to call it.  Maybe I should buy some ghost hunting kit, trifield meters and so on?   Not sure I can be arsed if I'm honest.

You can see the points...

 Yes you can see the points.... it's a packet of crayons, points up. Shot with the ring flash helped by window light for a bit more "modeling". Yes I'm that bored.  

I'm off for my anti-covid jab in a bit all being well, so I thought I'd do this first in case I feel rough later.

Seriously bored by lockdown and more crap tv programs!

 

 Ok first off lockdown is getting to me now, I'm missing getting out and about, I'm missing taking pics except for the odd shot here and there, and I'm missing spending time with family.

 Now I know some of these might seem trivial to some of you, but as you get older every day could be your last, at my age I need to make the best of the time I have left, thats not stuck in the house bored shitless most of the time.  It really is getting me down now.

 More crap tv.  Today I watched an episode of a program with experts out in the wilds looking for a dangerous animal.... except the experts torch died (this being in the middle of nowhere at night) and guess what? the guy had no spare battery or torch, neither did the cameraman.  They had to use the cameras video light to find their way down off a mountain FFS!

 I'm amazed that two people would go out at night up a mountain with one light source.  They obviously haven't heard the US Marines expression "one is none, two is one" you never rely on a single light in any dodgy situation, hell I have two lights on my evening local walk, and spare battery.

Clever dogs are expensive!

 Yesterday I mentioned the clever dog turning on my car lights, today I'm going to tell you it's expensive keeping a dog.

 It's not just the cost of feeding, de-flesing and shoe leather walking our smalest family members.... Oh no it's the cost of bloody VET's bills. Billy the dog hasn't been a 100% over the last few weeks, truth be told old age is catching up with him (and me!) in the last month his "treatment" and racked up a bill of around £450, or best part of.  That for a few tablets, and tests. We're not talking surgery or a head transplant, just bloody pills and lotions.   

 Some years back (quite a lot of years if I'm honest) I told a mate with a dog needing shit loads of expensive treatment it was cheeper to buy a new dog, and thats true.  But what it fails to take into accout is a dog isn't just a pet, they become a mamber of the family after a while, and you'd sooner go without yourself than see them suffer an untreated illness.

 Poor old Billy, get well soon, I might need my lights turned on again one day....

Fungi (new pic) and clever dog.

Well the first new pic for ages, found this fungi on my walk yesterday. 

As for the clever dog, I took him to the vets today for a check up, and the little git decided he wanted to get more attention... so he turned on the bloody lights on my car. Best part is I didn't motice until I was told they were all on. Little sod.

Test

 Think I've figured out how to get back to having paragraphes.  

This is the test, line spacing looks odd on the preview, but we'll see when I post this.

Wish me luck.... actually I'm going to insert random letters to see if line spacing is the same when I get to the ends of a normal line...  Looking at this it looks like it doesn't so I wont add random lines.  Fingers crossed everybody, this has been driving me bonkers for ages.

Meals on wheels

Due to my Mums worstening health I'm now "meals on wheels" knocking her up a cooked dinner to keep her eating. To be fair it doesn't take long to make the meal it's the time it takes to deliver it and have a gossip that eats up my time. I think I explained before that I cant do propper paragraphs in this blog anymore, it just bungs all the text together regardless of spacing or lines. Frankly it's a bloody pain!

Wales lockdown rules madness!

Who writes the lockdown rules for Wales, is it our "first minister" or his cat? I can buy a gold bracelet and earings, but I cant buy a bible (or a jack reacher) book to pass the time. I can buy a house (and travel to view them) but I can't buy a pillow or a quilt to sleep under in my new house. Your not allowed to drive to an isolated location to get exercise, but you can exercise in a crammed local park with 300 other dog walkers, and you can drive around if your mental health is suffering by lockdown (from the police themselves). Maybe instead of dreaming up daft nonsense rules our so called first minister should spend his time getting the vaccine out. I've only been able to find one person outside of health care who has had the jab. By the way if all our doctors are now vaccinted why are surgeries still bloody shut?

Latest update.

Well the car passed it's MOT... thank goodness! The weathers still dodgy so no shooting pics, although I do hope to get something to post in a few days.

Whats been happening?

Well the weathers been crap so no shooting pictures. My MOT is booked for this week so I've had some work done on the car (fingers crossed) I've been looking into a care home for my mother, she's struggling now, but it's trickier than I thought to sort one out.... especially in a pandemic. I'm bored ridgid from not taking pics and fed up with watching American CRAP so-called "reality"/documentary shows like the new series of Expedition bigfoot and many many others. The one thing they all have in common is the viwer will know nothing more from watching any of them.... Expedition bigfoot for examply couldn't find a boulder in a toothpaste tube never mind a fucking bigfoot. I recently watched a show made in 2019 about findnd the remains of Amelia Earheart.... except at the end we find out the DNA test in 2017 found out it's not her... So why make an hour program in the first place if you knew before you started it's not her remains. WTF was the point twats! Maybe I'll make a show called finding Elvis alive, then at the end it wont be Elvis but some bloke called Burt Jones who's actually dead, same premis, no real contet just shit.